Movie Scores

[ellyssian]

You know, I'm a big fan of movie scores, particularly symphonic ones. Morricone and Elfman come quickly to mind, the former slightly more limited to a handful (The Mission in particular), and the latter - well, for nearly everything of his. John Williams stuff, though, is in a separate category, above and beyond all others.

I'm listening to Gustav Holst's The Planets, as performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and conducted by James Levine, and I've come to a realization. It's the best John Williams composition he never wrote!

And no, I'm not just referring to Mars, the Bringer of War, which Williams pretty much looted lock, stock, and barrel to create the Imperial Stormtooper theme for Star Wars - the other planets seem to have imprinted themselves throughout all of Williams' stuff.

Which, by the way, is not a Bad Thing.

Comments

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

You should also give Dvorak's New World Symphony a listen, for Yet More Music Shamefully Plagiarized by that Hack John Williams.

Not that I feel strongly about it or anything.

[ellyssian.livejournal.com]

Of course, there was once a time when stealing musical or literary inspiration from you fellows was highly regarded. I can also find similarities between highly regarded pieces of classical music that - as far as I know - had no influence on one another.

To be perfectly clear, I highly respect John Williams as both composer and conductor.

What could turn me around, though, is if Williams did not acknowledge his influence - and I don't mean in the fine print wherever performances are found, but in actual conversation. I haven't talked with him enough, or read/heard/watched enough interviews to form that opinion of him.

The band Rhapsody uses New World Symphony to great aeffect on their song Wizards Last Rhymes from Rain of a Thousand Flames. A lot of people quote the similarities with the main theme of that symphony and the signature notes of Jaws, but, hey, other folks have used that interval as well. Whereas Dvorak moves off of it after (if I recall) two iterations, Williams focuses on it as *the* theme. And, as I'm listening to it, the brass just hit it twice in one of Carl Nielson's symphonies (which sounds nothing like any of the aforementioned pieces.)

[willow-aileen.livejournal.com]

I have fond romantic memories of both "The Planets" and Chicago symphony orchestra. :)

[mythweaver.livejournal.com]

We actually discussed this last year in Wind Ensemble when we played through Gustav Holst's The Planets (and his other songs and their movements, the names escape me because I don't remember liking them very much). Williams studied Holst's music, I remember hearing, and almost all of his themes have been modeled around Holst's pieces (either on purpose or inadvertently).

John Williams is an excellent composer...but right now I'm very interested in Thomas Newman, I love his work. ^_^